PHOENIX – People who said they registered for an early ballot but
never received one. People confused about the identification needed to
vote. People told they weren’t on a precinct’s voting list.

Arizona advocacy groups, political parties and politicians said those
are just some of the things that led to what they characterized as a
large number of provisional ballots cast Tuesday.

“All of this added up together was that a lot of people that felt
frustrated,” said Joaquin Rios, research director and election
protection coordinator for the Arizona Democratic Party.

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office
announced that as of Thursday there were 631,274 ballots yet to be
counted, of which 172,196 were provisionals and the rest were early
ballots.

Maricopa County reported 300,000 early ballots and 115,000
provisional ballots remaining, while Pima County reported 54,541 early
ballots and 26,194 provisionals remaining.

Matt Roberts, spokesman for the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office,
said the number of provisionals wasn’t abnormally high in Maricopa
County considering provisionals were around 100,000 in 2008.

“They are consistent with what we expected it to be,” he said.

An American Civil Liberties Union report analyzing provisional
ballots cast in 2008 reported that Maricopa County had 99,826 and Pima
County 17,192 that year.

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Coconino County Recorder Candy Owens said the 5,300 provisional
ballots in her county hasn’t increased significantly since 2008, when
there were 5,000.

“It is pretty typical,” she said.

State law gives counties 10 days to process and count early and provisional ballots.

Races too close to call in Arizona’s 2nd and 9th congressional
districts will be decided by votes cast by the provisional and early
ballots.

Rios said the Arizona Democratic Party received reports of polling
places with long lines for provisional ballots mainly because of people
who registered for an early ballot but never received one.

“It is unfortunate,” Rios said. “There is a lot of confusion out there.”

Rios said he’s not blaming the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office,
adding that he’s confident the office is staffed with professionals who
will get the ballots counted.

“Provisionals could very well make the difference in some of these close races,” he said.

Frustration was apparent Wednesday when about 100 mostly Latino
voters, volunteers from various activist groups and politicians and
rallied outside the Maricopa County’s tabulation center demanding to
know how many ballots remained uncounted while the news media and
candidates were declaring victory and moving on.

“If there are still over 400,000 ballots, there is no way a race
should be conceded or called just yet,” said Tomas Robles, an organizer
with Promise Arizona in Action, a group that worked to registered nearly
35,000 Latinos to vote this year.

“We are going to make sure those votes are counted,” said Phoenix
City Councilman Michael Nowakowski, who said he wants to see more
transparency from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, especially
after it sent out Spanish-language pamphlets to heavily Hispanic
neighborhoods listing the wrong date for the election.

“I mean, come on,” he said.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office announced that 44,455 early ballots were tabulated by late Wednesday.

“We are aware that there is a large interest in the final outcome of
some races,” Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell said in a news
release. “However, our office cannot sacrifice accuracy for speed.”

Yvonne Reed, spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office,
said the office has 200 people working “tirelessly” to process ballots
from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Provisional ballots are given to voters who don’t show up on precinct
rosters or are marked as having been sent early ballots. They are
sealed and placed in plastic containers where they head to elections
offices to be processed and counted.

“Conditional provisional” ballots are cast by voters who doesn’t
provide the right identification. Those voters have until the end of the
day Wednesday, Nov. 14, go to their county’s elections office and offer
the necessary ID.

Signatures on the ballots have to be verified by hand.

First-time voter Claudette Arvizu, 19, who attended Wednesday’s
rally, said she waited in line for hours to cast a provisional ballot
after a poll worker told her she was sent an early ballot.

“I never got it,” Arvizu said.

Arvizu said she felt her vote wasn’t important when she saw poll
workers place her ballot into a plastic box instead of running it
through a machine.

“I felt like my vote was worth nothing,” Arvizu said.

Roberts, of Arizona Secretary of State’s office, said provisional
ballots exist to ensure a voter gets to cast a ballot and to safeguard
against people voting twice.

Carol Cox, chairman of Pima County’s Republican Party, said voters
across her county were forced to cast provisional ballots because the
Pima County Recorder’s Office bungled voting rosters and many voters who
should have been on voting lists at particular precincts didn’t show up
on the lists.

“We basically had a total failure on the part of the Pima County Recorder’s office,” Cox said.

Pima County Recorder Ann Rodriguez said the main problem was voters
who didn’t update their addresses and then showed up at the wrong
polling sites. She said in that situation it’s protocol to ask a voter
to cast a provisional ballot.

3 comments on this story

And let’s not forget that we had redistricting. That means F Ann sent new voter registration cards out just a short time ago. Address information doesn’t get much recent. If the address was incorrect the card went back to the Recorder’s Office. They were NOT forwarded to a new address per law.

F Ann needs investigated. Her race wasn’t within the margins to be effected by her mishandling so there should be not perception of political motivation in the investigation.

F Ann isn’t being truthful. I was at a polling place all day long. The typical number of provisional ballots there is 10-12. This election it was 94! 90% were because the voters name was not on the rolls. Per protocol a call was made to the recorder’s office and they WERE at the correct voting place.

Two facts reveal this scenario as widespread and atypical and not hysterics. The first is the shear number of provisionals ballots, 26,194 according to the article above. There were 335,716 votes cast in Pima County according to the Secretary do State’s office. That means nearly 8% of the votes cast were provisional ballots this election! MANY races were within 5%. F Ann’s botching of this certainly effected outcomes.

The second fact is that last election there are are only 17,192 provisionals cast. That’ a difference of about 9000 votes! The other counties were about the same according to the article but it didn’t say that about Pima, and that’s why.

Almost every office that’s race is exclusively or predominantly within Pima County was decided by less than 9000 votes. Many by FAR less including Sheriff, County Supervisor, State Senate and Legislature, and at least one Congressional Race.

This must be made right. If we lose confidence in the election process then we lose civil peace and the peaceful transfer of power and legitimacy of the authority of the offices. Speak up! Who makes this right?

Sorry, we missed your input...

rotesters outside the Maricopa County Recorder’s early tabulation center Wednesday said they’re angry because of the amount of uncounted ballots. Faith Mendoza (middle) held a sign that read “MY RIGHTS ARE NOT PROVISIONAL.”

Yet to be counted

Early Ballots: Dropped off at polling places on election day. Some ballots turned in prior to election day.

Regular Provisional Ballots: Cast by voters whose names didn’t show
up on precinct rosters or who they were marked as casting an early
ballot.

Conditional Provisional Ballots: Cast by those who don’t have the
correct identification at the polls. Those voters have until end of the
day Tuesday, Nov. 13, to get to their county’s elections office and show
the necessary ID.

Yes!

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